CCC: Red War

Waaaaay back in season 2, the heroes of the Moonsea banded together to fight back against the insane elemental cults. The battle was won, but at a terrible cost: through their actions, the heroes destroyed huge swaths of Mulmaster by allowing the devastation orbs to detonate in many locations. These actions have had numerous ramifications for the last few years, not the least of which was that the Red Wizards of Thay returning to the city and exercising their strong, choking grip on its residents. You can still order and play this adventure as a charity event – just contact the Resource team after reading this information and request DDEP02 Mulmaster Undone.

“Rebuilding”, they called it, and “working for the greater good”. While it is true that the Thayans were indeed rebuilding the city and keeping the chaotic elemental rifts in check, the old adage of “never trust a Red Wizard” definitely held true. The visiting zulkir Dar’lon Ma interacted with many notable champions, broke bread with the Cloaks and their agents, and all the while was gathering his insight and research on how best to proceed with his own plans of conquest. Heroes eventually revealed that he had used these heroes as little more than mercenaries, and was using some of the artifacts that they secured in an attempt to do something vile to the residents of Mulmaster.

From the Emerald Enclave a voice piped up, belonging to Tick Tary Tanner. His voice blended together with the voices of many other champions from all of the factions, with most – but not all – calling for a war against the Red Wizards. Some railed against this declaration, while others sided with Tick and his allies, and still others abstained, wishing to see what the effect of such a declaration would be.

Never trust a Red Wizard.

This would become the foundation of the recent Epic adventure, DDEP00-01 The Red War. Dar’lon Ma sought to control the announcement of war, and Szass Tam became infuriated. The elder lich would visit the city and enact the dire enchantments that would be felt in that adventure. The heroes would be faced with grim choices and a challenge unlike that which they had faced before: the wrath of Szass Tam himself.

So what does this have to do with Convention-Created Content (“CCC”) and the Adventurers League? Well, we want people to get creative. We’ve seen what happens when people are motivated to craft an engaging roleplay narrative, and we know that there are a lot of good designers and adventure authors out there just waiting for the right opportunity to get involved in the ongoing story of the Moonsea and the heroes that inhabit it. To that end, we want to put forth the following:

the Epic adventure is designed as a “top-down” view of the events of that climactic battle

conventions, event organizers, and shows can now design content that takes place in Mulmaster during the events of the Epic

This means that a show can – if their request is approved – write an adventure that features a group of adventurers looting one of the Cloak’s treasure vaults in the chaos of the war, or an adventure that spotlights the actions that some of the regional faction leaders take during the various fights and conflicts. Perhaps a stealth-focused mission that sees the heroes skirting the major battlegrounds and instead doing some recon work for their benefactor or even attempting to infiltrate the ranks of the Red Wizards in an attempt to learn just what the “master plan” might be for the Thayans. The options are limitless! The CCCs can’t change the outcome of the Epic, but this is a very powerful way to point a spotlight on events that may be personally impactful to the factions and key NPCs from the CCCs that you already know and love.

The Mulmaster city guide will have a few new pages added to it next week that cover some of the basic effects that the Red War has on Mulmaster during that adventure, and will discuss some of the events that lead up to this conflict. This should be a boon to roleplayers and designers alike, but to be honest one of the biggest things we can add here is that we have a core group of awesome designers working on the first wave of Red War-themed CCCs:

Hailing from the wilds of central Michigan, Alan has provided a warm home to a wife and two cats over the years.Of course, they all have to fight with the ever-expanding collection of beholder-related paraphernalia - and the recent arrival of his son.

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Hailing from the wilds of central Michigan, Alan has provided a warm home to a wife and two cats over the years. Of course, they all have to fight with the ever-expanding collection of beholder-related paraphernalia - and the recent arrival of his son.